Ready to take the plunge!

[JasonH20]

OK so let's hear about the rest of it.. Don't stop now. How was that first breath UNDERWATER? COOL wans't it?

The very first time I tried scuba was through a resort's introductory to diving class in Hawaii about 6 years ago. By far, the memory that stands out the clearest was that first breath! It was so hard to get those first couple of breaths down. I went under and held my breath for a bit with the reg in my mouth trying to convince myselft to take that first inhale. Finally I sucked in the shortest breath in history, then seeing I didn't die, I sucked in a bit more. Probably sounded like an old beater car trying to start. Hic-hic-hic-hic, exhale (ahhhhh), hic-hic-hic-hic, exhale (ahhhhh). Probably took a dozen or so breaths before I could bring myself to take in a full inhale all at once.

I don't know why I waited 6 years to finally get around to getting certified, but boy am I glad I did. Went on my first 2 dives this weekend outside of class and it was great. It's cool to realize I'm a "real" scuba diver now.

Good luck m7scuba with the rest of your class!

 

[alwaysready2go]

M7Scuba - hubby and I are also in the process of becoming certified! First class for us was on 1/5 - second one is 1/12 and its a five week course. Sounds like you covered an awful lot of stuff for your first pool class. How many weeks is yours and how many hours at a time? My class has 1 hour bookwork, 1 hour pooltime. As for the first breath under no problem - my problem it turned out was not exhaling enough. I was concentrating on inhaling so much that I wasn't exhaling enough and then get short of breath and have to surface - third time was a charm esp. once the instructor told me I wan't exhaling - what? of course I'm exhaling - tried again - nope not exhaling - LOL - So far we have removed the regulator and cleared it both ways, then practiced equalizing. This week I know we will be mask clearing and removing the bc, etc... Kind of nervous - hubby catches right on and it takes me extra time to get it down. Fingers crossed - I really want this and I have OW Cert dives scheduled in Grand Cayman and Cozumel in March! Advice anyone??

 

[baltimoron]

You had an easy time with BC removal?!?! No fair!!! That one was hard for me!!!

Glad you had a good time, keep with it.

Zack

 

[m7scuba]

Just finished my last class yesterday. Just wanted to post a couple of answers from above...

First breath under water was very cool! I got to do an introductory dive while in Hawaii last September. Falling off of the boat backwards was pretty interesting, but I had no trouble taking that breath...

I was in an accelerated class. We covered everything in 2 days. 4 hours of classwork and 3 hours of pool each day. I'm glad that I did it in 2 days because I like learning stuff in that manner.

Test was pretty easy. If you read the book and did the questions, you shouldn't have a problem with it (SSI anyway). I did notice how the last chapter was an advertisement for the further training available (not that it was a bad thing). I found it amusing every time I read a statement in the book about how "your local SSI Dealer can..."

In the pool we did a review of the skills that we did the first night (mask clearing and removal, regulator purging and retrieval) and then added a few more. We practiced an ESA, OOA (buddy breathing), giant stride entry. All in all very fun!

I would suggest that anyone taking the class do some swimming before they start. After the swim test Saturday and being in the pool both nights I am sore. I'll be sure to get in the water some before I go do my cert dives in February. We'll be going to Vortex Springs in the Florida panhandle. Can't wait...

Brian